The Course provides the knowledge and skills necessary for the practice of the profession of Social and Health Professional Educator. The Course has a limited number of students. In case of transfer from another CdS, an entrance exam is still taken. Attendance at educational activities is compulsory. The working student has a personalized course. The internship takes place exclusively in health, socio-health and social (socio-educational) facilities that have an agreement with the University. 

The professionalizing internship covers 60 of the 180 CFUs of the study plan. It takes place in health care (Ligurian ASLs), socio-health care (affiliated with Ligurian ASLs), and socio-educational (affiliated with Local Authorities) facilities, with the support of appointed professional educators, such as the Internship Coordinator, internship tutors, and internship guides. Laboratory activities and thematic seminars complement the theoretical and professionalizing training of the internship.

The Social and Health Professional Educator works both in public or private health care facilities and in social and health care facilities (cooperatives, day care centers, residential continuous-cycle and day services, socio-educational centers, works at ASLs and Local Authorities and prison institutions), under a dependency or freelance regime. He also works in all services involved in activating social inclusion projects.

The Course trains professionals capable of:

• plan, implement and evaluate rehabilitative educational interventions intended for individuals in difficulty and aimed at the development of increasingly advanced levels of autonomy
• identify the psychological, social and environmental dynamics that can generate distress and illness
• analyze community and group health problems and the responses of health and social welfare services to the main needs of citizens
• evaluate the impact of public health measures in relation to the needs of populations
• apply research findings to improve the quality of care

The course is divided into three years:

• the first year provides the basic knowledge of the propaedeutic, biomedical and medical-surgical sciences disciplines, as well as an initial framing of the professional figure of the health educator
• the second year focuses more on professional methodologies in the different areas of expertise and pedagogical and psychological disciplines
• the third year is devoted to specialized study

Each year includes the internship, which is graded by increasing complexity over the three-year period, and 2 CFUs of the student's choice.

Department of Health Sciences
. Via Pastore 1
16132 Genoa

1) What job does a graduate in Professional Education do?
. The Professional Educator is a social-health professional who is involved in care and rehabilitation with the aim of fostering the positive integration or reintegration into the community of individuals in a state of psychophysical fragility. The professional profile of the Professional Educator is regulated by Ministry of Health Decree No. 520 of October 8, 1998. The Professional Educator, with his or her contribution, can help people in difficulty of all age groups to improve their quality of life.
 
2) What does a Professional Educator graduate not do?
. He/she does not do administrative work, perform health care and nursing, or administer drugs.

 
3) What kind of motivations do those who choose to major in Professional Education have?
. Those who choose to earn a degree in Professional Education do so because they wish to pursue a profession of helping people to explore different conditions of human life, with the goal of providing support and care to people in fragile conditions. Moreover, the Vocational Educator is the professional who, through his or her activity, can contribute to improving the overall health potential of his or her client.
 
4) Where can I find work with a degree in Professional Education?
At various facilities of the National Health Service (ASL, hospitals), municipalities, private cooperatives affiliated with the National Health Service, recovery communities, prison health, immigration centers, universities (teaching and research).
 
5) What types of users does a Professional Educator graduate work with?
. The Vocational Educator works with adults and minors with different types of mental, sensory, and motor disabilities, minors with family distress, people with substance abuse addictions, and people in detention.
 
6) In what public agencies can a graduate in Vocational Education work?
. National and Regional Health Service, Municipalities, Prison Health.

 
7) What outlets does a graduate in Professional Education have in the private sector?
. The Professional Educator can work in all accredited social-health services that have an agreement with or in social cooperatives that manage social-educational services (e.g., educational care communities for minors or therapeutic communities for minors with psychiatric disorders, in social-health residences for people with disabilities, day care centers or social-educational centers, rehabilitation communities for drug addicts).
 
8) What further studies can a graduate in Professional Education have access to?
. A graduate in Professional Education can access all first-level master's degree programs in health care in his or her field of expertise. He/she can also continue his/her studies with the Master's Degree in Rehabilitative Science of Health Professions and access the Master's Degree in Pedagogy and Social Work by supplementing the missing educational credits. After obtaining the Master's Degree, he/she can access second-level Master's degree and PhD.
 
9) How many chances does a graduate in Professional Education have of finding a job?
. 100% of Vocational Education graduates are employed on fixed-term or permanent contracts within 6 months of graduation.

 
10) What career possibilities does a graduate in Professional Education have?
In the public sector, he or she may hold positions coordinating services or managing professional teams. In the private sector, he or she can coordinate various health, social and socio-educational services and enter managerial roles in cooperatives or consortia of cooperatives that deliver services to the person.

Internship Coordinator
. Prof. Mario Saiano
mario.saiano@asl3.liguria.it

DISSAL teaching support unit
. didatticadissal@unige.it